Part 34 (2/2)

So that is your task: to go to Mount Parna.s.sus and tell the Simurgh. Then return here and I will make good on my promise.”

Mela knew that the naga folk always kept their promises. But she had another objection. ”We are north of the Gap Chasm, and Mount Parna.s.sus is south of it. It will take us a long time to get there, and if the problem is urgent we may be too late.”

Naldo glanced at Draco, who slithered out of the nest, spread his wings, and flew down to the water. He dived in.

”I'll will show you out of this den,” Naldo said. ”By the time we emerge, Draco will have some winged monsters ready to transport you.”

”Just so long as we don't have to go through that awful fresh water,” Mela said.

”Unfortunately you do. But I trust all three of you can swim.

Mela exchanged a few more glances with her companions. ”Yes. But we don't want to get our clothing wet.”

”Then take it off, by all means! I certainly don't object!”

”But if we do, you will see our-our unmentionables,” Mela said, not wanting to say the P word to a male.

”I will transform to my complete serpent form,” he said. ”The proscription does not apply to animals, of course, as they have no appreciation of the significance of such apparel.”

Mela wasn't quite certain of the logic, but couldn't refute it. So Naldo a.s.sumed his fully serpent form, and the three of them removed their clothing and then their panties, and stood in their altogether like three nymphs. They sealed their things in their purses, then looked at the snake.

The snake slithered to one side of the nest, and nudged something with his snout. It was a rope ladder. Mela went and tossed it over the side, and saw that it reached to the floor of the cave, and was firmly anch.o.r.ed above. That must have been how other visitors came up, when the dragon had company. She had never thought of dragons as sociable creatures, but it seemed that it was possible. After all, Draco had been playing a game of fire, water, sand with Merwin Merman when they had the altercation that led to the loss of the firewater opal. It seemed that though every mercreature knew that water doused fire, sand displaced water, and fire melted sand, the dragon had somehow thought that it was backwards, with fire evaporating water, water covering sand, and sand smothering fire. So each thought he had won, and that the other was cheating, and they had fought. What mischief had come of the confusions and aggressions of males! Still, males did make life more interesting. Perhaps not as interesting as females made life for males, but then the realms of life and love never had been quite fair.

They used the ladder in turn and stood by the dark water. The bats hovered again, watching. They were evidently guardians of the den. The snake slithered down the ladder and into the water. So they followed, distressing as it was for Mela. Once she landed her husband and returned to the sea, she would never touch fresh water again.

They swam in single file. The snake took a breath and dived under the surface, and Mela followed. She saw vicious little piranha fish, and was suddenly nervous, because without her tail (which she would not trust to this water) she could not swim fast enough to avoid them. But they did not attack; they merely watched. Draco must have given them the word. The dragon had guardians in both the air and the water, making his precious nest secure.. ”Yet obviously the demons could reach it, since they had conjured the three damsels there, and the goblins had raided it. So nothing was perfect.

There was an underwater pa.s.sage leading out. They used it, and soon came to an end of the water in a dry cave.

Someone going the other way would never know that the dark pool led to a dragon's lair! Mela had been surprised to see the dragon swim away, but she really had never known a lot about dragons. It was evident that some flying dragons could indeed swim, and that some firedrakes could handle water. Just as some merfolk could handle land, when they had to.

They saw daylight beyond, so paused to put their clothing back on. Since Mela's original clothing remained wet, she had to use the Freudian slip and slippers again, and her algae bra. The bra was all right; in fact she hoped to continue using it after this was over, because it derived from the sea and was comfortable.

But the slip was treacherous, and she didn't trust it at all. It seemed to be out to embarra.s.s her by ”accidentally” showing things she very much did not want to show. The slippers were almost as bad; they tended to slip on the ground when someone was watching. They caused her legs to slip out of their covering at odd moments, so that more of them showed than intended.

This could have been very embarra.s.sing, if she hadn't taken the trouble to form good legs.

They came to the cave opening. It turned out to be in the slope of a mountain, with a sheer drop to the level ground. What now?

A four-legged griffin approached, its fierce eagle's head orienting on them as the paws of its lion's body reached for them. It hovered as close as it could to the cave, but it was shaped the wrong way to land there.

Naldo resumed his naga form. ”One of you catch onto the griffin's legs,” he said. The downdraft from the wings was blowing his hair straight back.

”But-” Mela said, with a qualm that was more than mere doubt.

”Draco has enlisted them to carry you to Mount Parna.s.sus, ” Naldo explained. ”But one griffin can carry only one person. Gregor Griffin will set you on his back once you catch on. Trust him; he is sworn to protect Che Centaur.

Mela's faith was distinctly weak. Griffins had been known to slaughter and eat luscious merwomen such as herself. But she realized that she had to set an appropriate example. Besides, her slip was trying to slip to the side again, and her slippers were trying to make her feet slip out from under her so that she would sit down suddenly with her slip flying over her head. She had to get into a better situation. So she stomped on the nearest qualm, sh.o.r.ed up her faint faith, and reached out to take hold of the monster's front legs.

The griffin flew up, and Mela was dragged off the mountain. She dangled in the air, under the griffin, feeling like the clapper of a bell. She tried to scream, but before she got enough breath for a respectable effort, the griffin hoisted his front legs and sent her looping up over his head. She did an appalled flip in the air and landed-plop-on his back, right between his beating wings.

She finally got her breath in order, and made ready to scream. But by then she realized that she no longer had cause. She was riding the griffin, and no one could see her panty even if the slip tried to show it, because she was too far from the ground.

She hung on to the griffin's feathery mane and glanced back. There was another griffin behind, with Okra on it.

Farther back was a third, with Ida. They were all safely riding. What a relief!

Now the three griffins winged swiftly south. Surprisingly soon they were crossing the Gap Chasm. Mela peered down, trying to see whether the cave they had taken to the demons' realm was there, but they were flying so high that the details were only a blur. It was amazing the way Professor Grossclout had conjured them so far to the dragon's cave, just like that. She would never want to run afoul of the professor, for sure!

The griffins accelerated. Now the scenery fairly whizzed by. Xanth was like a huge carpet, with forests, rivers, lakes, and fields painted on.

Most lakes were small, like puddles, but there was one larger one which looked like pursed lips. ”Lake Kiss-Mee!” she exclaimed, thrilled by the identification. She had been there, not all that long ago. A line extended south of it which had to be the Kiss-Mee River, up which Okra had paddled.

They followed that line down until it touched a much larger lake. That would be Ogre-Chobee, where the curse fiends resided. Plus a few stray ogres, as Okra had shown.

Then they angled southwest, crossing dense jungle. Finally the very tip of a mountain showed ahead-and the griffins swooped down to the land.

That would be because they were not allowed to fly too close to Mount Parna.s.sus.

But it would still be a long walk for Mela and her companions.

But the griffins did not stop. They touched land, folded their wings, and ran on four feet on toward the mountain.

So that was why Draco had enlisted the four-legged variety! They could take the travelers a good deal closer to the mountain without getting into trouble.

In due course the griffins halted. They were now quite near the base of Mount Parna.s.sus, but not touching it. The winged monsters had gone as far as they dared go.

Mela dismounted. ”Thank you, Gregor,” she said with genuine grat.i.tude.

”You have saved me a long, hard trek.”

Then she kissed the griffin on the beak.

Gregor's face feathers changed from golden to beet.

Mela was sympathetic, having experienced something similar when the Freudian slip misbehaved. Probably the creature was frustrated at not being able to consume her tender flesh.

Soon the griffins were running away. All the three of them had to do now was find a way to the top of the mountain without getting eaten by the wild Maenads or the monstrous Python. Mela hoped they were up to it.

Mela verified her memory of the hazards in her manual, then explained the problem. ”We can't just climb up. The Maenads are wild women who chase down and eat any intruders, and those they don't catch the terrible Python does. There are Muses on the mountain, but they don't interfere, and anyway, it's the Simurgh at the top who we have to see.”

”Maybe I could bash a Maenad,” Okra said.

”But they travel in wild screaming packs,” Mela said.

”While you were bas.h.i.+ng one, the others would get us. No, we want to avoid them entirely, if we can.”

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